Does Enterpise-A's short tenure make sense?

[tim0122]

Kirk's first Enterprise was commissioned for about 40 years (with three captains). But Enterpise-A had seven years of service. To be fair, D had a similar run, but it was destroyed during a mission. My point being, does it really make sense for the Federation to be cool with the TOS Enterpise flying about for almost half a century but then to decommission A before even a decade? Seems like a waste.

 

[Tosk]

If the A was a recommissioned ship, how do we know it wasn't also decades old?

I'm guessing some comic or novel says so, but I only care what the screen says.

 

[Christmas Dae]

I expect the class was nearing the end of it's projected lifespan. With the Excelsior class becoming the new capital ship of the fleet, the Constitution didn't have much of a role to play. Mirandas were workhorses, Oberths were science vessels and the Constellations were likely something or other.

It could've been political too, what with the Klingons and all that.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Didn't we see a frame, and the ship being built?

Oh. Kelvin Timeline.

 

[Finngle Bells]

We never saw Connies after that IIRC so I"m okay with that.

 

[Citiprime]

If I remember correctly, there’s a non-canon explanation (which I don’t know if it comes from the novelization of “The Voyage Home” or not) that the Enterprise-A was originally the USS Yorktown which Starfleet renamed (an Easter egg to the fact that Roddenberry originally was going to use that name for “Star Trek”).

Although, from a naval tradition standpoint, renaming already commissioned ships kind of bothers me, since it’s usually considered taboo and really, really bad luck.

 

[HoHoHoRod]

I've never cared for the idea that the Enterprise-A was an older Constitution that was renamed. It always comes off as disrespectful to the original name of the ship.

Thankfully, absolutely nothing in the films actually implies this to be the case. Infact, Star Trek 5 definitely points to the ship being newly built.

As for it being decommissioned so early in it's lifetime, I suspect politics playing an issue. Or perhaps the class was simply getting long in the tooth and could no longer be considered a top of the line vessel when compared to newer classes like the Excelsior or even the Constellation. Maybe they cost too much to operate in terms of manpower. There's a multitude of reasons why it could have happened.

There's real world precedent for this sorta thing happening. Just look at the U.S. Navy and the recent decommissioning of multiple Littoral Combat Ships after only about 10 years.

 

[King Bob!]

What is your personal head canon?

Or Barbossa in Pirates of the Caribbean who somehow becomes a hero. Yeah, that’s the movie/TV/fiction thing where if you haven’t murdered any innocents lately, you’re redeemable. (See for ex. Fennic Shand over on The Mandalorian & The Book of Boba Fett, who had randomly murdered some passerby...

www.trekbbs.com

The Enterprise-A is actually the original Enterprise.

The Enterprise was set to be refit, but Starfleet also started work on the first new Enterprise subclass ship. As both neared the end, it became clear that the Enterprise refit wouldn't be ready to launch the class, so the two were flipped. The new build would become the Enterprise NCC-1701, while the Enterprise herself would be renamed to whatever name that new ship would've been.

However, the refit Enterprise would become a testbed for new technologies over the intervening years. Never actually having an official name though probably having an NX designation.

Then, when Starfleet gets caught over a barrel, not really having a ship to give Kirk and his band of rebels, they pulled the actual refit 1701 off of the testing grounds and gave it to Kirk, to become the 1701-A. Explaining why it was a mess. It was a testbed with tons of conflicting technologies that were never intended to work together over the long term.

So when the seemingly young Enterprise-A is retired at the end of the Battle at Khitomer, it is because it isn't young at all...

 

[F. King Daniel]

I loved the idea from Shatner's "Ashes of Eden" novel/comic that Enterprise was decommissioned due to the new Klingon treaty, and sold to become a civilian defence ship on some border world.

In canon Trek, ship service lengths make zero sense. NX-01 was doing just fine after 100 years in "E2", but no she's retired after 10. These ships should be lasting centuries.

 

[King Bob!]

In canon Trek, ship service lengths make zero sense. NX-01 was doing just fine after 100 years in "E2", but no she's retired after 10. These ships should be lasting centuries.

According to the TNG Tech Manual by Sternbach and Okuda, the Galaxy-class ships were supposed to have an operational lifetime of a century. Unfortunately, you don't sell toys that way.

 

[DonIago]

I always wondered whether the damage the ship incurred during the Khitomer battle had anything to do with it. Though, objectively, the damage doesn't really seem that bad...

 

[David cgc]

I always wondered whether the damage the ship incurred during the Khitomer battle had anything to do with it. Though, objectively, the damage doesn't really seem that bad...

The Bird of Prey could've hit some critical component or structural area. Kirk was apparently expecting the Enterprise-A to stay in service from his closing log, it could've been they didn't realize until they got to Earth that the ship had frame damage and wasn't safe to keep rocketing through time warps or being tractor-beamed by giant alien ships. Maybe it counts against it that the -B was launched the same year, but the ship could've been renamed at the last minute just before commissioning, not unlike the -A was (if you don't buy the "they just hosed the bodies out of the Yorktown" theory).

 

[F. King Daniel]

Also if you look too closely, the Enterprise-A is SUPER SHINY and new in IV, has the STIII Excelsior black wall consoles in V then is somehow old and beaten up by the time of VI. It doesn't make much sense. I really think the intent of VI is it was the same ship as TOS and they were ignoring III.

 

[tim0122]

I have a very hard time buying the refit idea. For one, if that was the case, I'd think they'd keep the original ship name like in TMP and nevermind the A. Two, more importantly, the original ship exploded pretty badly. I have no doubt they would've salvaged some parts for historical purposes. It was a legendary ship, and they'd want parts of it for a museum. But why go through the trouble of grabbing what few pieces remain of the ship and welding them (or whatever they'd do) to mostly new pieces when it'd probably be much easier to just build a new ship from scratch.

I have a better time believing they'd rename an already built ship. Even that, though, I don't see happening. Would seem in poor taste and an insult to boot to give the best known captain in Starfleet a hand-me-down with a new name etched on.

Plus, Starfleet always has a problem with having other ships in range. So, I doubt they had any other ships to spare.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Also if you look too closely, the Enterprise-A is SUPER SHINY and new in IV, has the STIII Excelsior black wall consoles in V then is somehow old and beaten up by the time of VI. It doesn't make much sense. I really think the intent of VI is it was the same ship as TOS and they were ignoring III.

They paint with the transporter constantly.

Navigation Shields are turned off when the ship is moored at a station.

Interstellar dust.

 

[tim0122]

They paint with the transporter constantly.

Navigation Shields are turned off when the ship is moored at a station.

Interstellar dust.

Nonsense! The ship's constantly in a vacuum. It'd take care of all the dust.

 

[Paul755]

It’s implied at the beginning of TUC that the Enterprise A is going to continue as a ship of the line just with a new crew. Kirk says the crew is set to stand down and Spock tells Valaris “this is my final voyage on this ship as a part of her crew”.

So I’ve always found it likely Starfleet fully intended to transfer command to someone else. But the ship was so badly damaged from the fight it was decided to repair and retire the ship to the fleet museum instead of putting it back out there. The historical aspect of the mission, plus it being “Kirk’s Enterprise” might have also played a roll.

I know all the beta canon stuff says it was a renamed ship (Ti-Ho or Yorktown) but I always assumed it was an existing space frame that wasn’t quite completed that they quickly painted to say Enterprise and sent on its way. At least that’s how I take it with Scotty fixing virtually everything at the start of FF.

 

[Imaus]

Renaming is right out. While I get that some want to put in the Yorktown somewhere, IV already does it. And Rodeenberry and co would know all about the black mark against renaming ships already so Christened.

I always chalked it up as a sacrificial lamb due to the end of the Klingon Cold War and Khitomer - the Klingons would probably want something from the Feds, even in their downed state, and taking off a ship class that was fifty years old but scared the bejesus outta them is something I could see the politicians, engineers, and starfleet command agreeing on - the rise of Excelsiors being bigger, faster, nastier, and just better in every way. Enterpise-A lasting from what, 2286 to 2294 isn't that bad.... Especially if she shot up a lot of Klingon ships in another five year journey between the movies.

And I've always held that the Federation and United Earth can really pump out ships anyway (can you believe some fan timelines have ships doing shakedown cruises or hull construction for years on end on the regular?) so making a Connie fourty years after the Constitution was no real big deal, just another run-line for the shipyards, then its taken out.

 

[King Bob!]

And I've always held that the Federation and United Earth can really pump out ships anyway (can you believe some fan timelines have ships doing shakedown cruises or hull construction for years on end on the regular?)

They are very complex machines, I doubt they can just punch them out, on demand.

 

[Imaus]

They are very complex machines, I doubt they can just punch them out, on demand.

With two centuries of shipbuilding by the time of the movies, the resources of numerous asteroid belts, a huge population across a dozen stars, and then we have the buildup nearly a century later of the Feds just pumping out hundred ship fleets for the dominion war, why the doubt. They made Spacedock, a veritable space colony, just for tending to the fleet. If Earth could strap on warp nacelles to every flying dorito by the 2070s and 2100s, a post-bombed out world not even united, imaging what the Federation can do often can lead to ludicrous numbers, and for good reason. The resources and infrastructure available are enough to make every core world a paradise, and the only limitation is the stuff that the show makes rare like Dilithium....

The most complex part of the ship would be its warp coils, engine, and the antimatter stuff, everything else is relatively simple - piping, furnishings, metal hulls, computers, fusion reactors....